Keep Them Safe? Special report to Parliament August 2011

Keep Them Safe: A shared approach to child wellbeing is an initiative of the former government stemming from recommendations made by the 2008 Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW. It represents a significant shift in the way that child protection and early support services are delivered in NSW. It is now over 18 months since Keep Them Safe commenced. We initiated an inquiry under section 11 of the Community Services (Complaints, Reviews and Monitoring) Act 1993 to examine whether Community Services capacity to adequately respond to children assessed as being at risk of significant harm has improved as a result of changes to the child protection system introduced through Keep Them Safe. This report examines this, and related issues, and makes a range of findings and recommendations.